San Marino will have the first nationwide 5G network

The 5G race is already around the world. At the moment, the most advanced tests are in the United States and South Korea. However, nobody wants to leave behind, also in Europe. Also, Chinese want to use 5G to dethrone Apple and Samsung in smartphone market. It promises to be interesting. Especially that the first country with the nationwide 5G coverage will be San Marino.

We all know when we will see the first commercial 5G networks. This will be the year 2020. However, some operators want to be faster. It is also said that the first 5G based services will be available in 2 years. For example, the US operator Verizon wants to offer fixed wireless internet access. In many countries for this purpose Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies are currently used. However, European operators also have a 5G boom and want to outdo their competitors from other continents. Europe has fallen short with 3G development, 4G LTE overtook us Americans, but we can win with 5G.

The Italian operator signed an agreement with the government of San Marino on the development of 4G and the launch of the 5G network.

Telecom Italia intends to begin by building base stations that will offer the latest wireless data solutions offered by LTE-Advanced, i.e. the so-called 4.5G network. This is 4×4 MIMO, Carrier Aggregation (up to 4 and even 5 bands), advanced modulation (e.g. 256 QAM) and cloud architecture network (Cloud RAN). There will also be many small cells that will be connected to the entire architecture using a fiber link. By the end of next year, San Marino will have the first test nationwide 5G network.

Why San Marino?

Representatives of Telecom Italia believe that the specific geographic shape of San Marino and its distribution in the country is conducive to the development of new technologies. Thanks to this, the operator wants to test the new technology in a limited area (San Marino area is ​​only 61.2 km²) before applying it throughout Italy. Of course, the solutions which we have today in LTE-Advanced networks are just the beginning. Telecom Italia wants to launch the real 5G in San Marino. With the introduction of the 5G New Radio specification in this enclave, the Italian operator will be able to boast the world’s first 5G nationwide network. Technically, this is a marketing operation, but the fact remains. Small state with 33 thousand inhabitants in a few years will be able to boast of the fastest mobile Internet in the world.